A September research report by Ceres, a Boston-based business sustainability advocacy organization, was eerily prescient.

Ceres published the white paper titled, "Stormy Future for U.S. Property/Casualty Insurers: The Growing Costs and Risks of Extreme Weather Events."

The Ceres report examined how extreme weather trends may be a harbinger of significant challenges ahead for a sector in which many companies are already confronting profitability and growth challenges. The analysis was based on a review of U.S. property and casualty insurance industry financial results as reported by A. M. Best Company in early 2012.

"Extreme weather is hitting the United States with a vengeance and it poses a growing threat to the insurance industry and vast segments of society that rely on insurance for peace of mind and financial security. This summer's devastating drought and record-high temperatures are only the latest reminders of the far-reaching impacts that climate change and extreme weather events pose to U.S. property and casualty insurers still reelingfrom last year's $32 billion of insured losses from such events," Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler wrote in the first sentence of the foreword of the report.

A month later, superstorm Sandy struck the East Coast, causing an estimated $50 billion in economic damages, including about $10 billion to $20 billion of insured losses, according to Eqecat Inc., a provider of catastrophic risk models for the insurance industry.

Sandy's fury and other rising incidents of horrific weather-related carnage should be of concern to all businesses because of the implications on the affordability and practicality of property and casualty insurance.

In other words, we're all going to absorb those losses, even if we here in Wisconsin were not directly in Sandy's path.

"As the Washington Insurance Commissioner, I am concerned because increasing weather-related losses pose threats to the industry's financial stability, which could ultimately lead to a crisis of affordability and availability of essential insurance for consumers and businesses, as well as solvency problems for insurers themselves. Potentially larger extreme weather losses in the future, driven by climate change, make these scenarios especially worrisome," Kreidler wrote in September, not knowing at the time that Sandy was right around the corner.

According to the report, more than 25,000 new record high temperatures were set in 2012 alone in the United States. The report stated that 2011 was "the deadliest thunderstorm and tornado season in more than 50 years," resulting in almost 550 fatalities across the country.

When the Great Recession hit in 2008, public discourse about "global warming" became almost quaint, as people were more focused on keeping their jobs or keeping their businesses open as the economy cratered. It seemed to many that only tree-hugging, Al Gore-loving hippies were concerned about "climate change."

The warmest climatological year on record and recent catastrophic events such as Hurricane Sandy changed that. According to a new poll by The Associated Press-Gfk, 80 percent of Americans now believe global warming will be a big problem for the nation if it does not take action to reduce it.

Talkbacks

Wait a second here, @mikeb. Are you trying to say that 160 years worth of weather/temperature tracking isn't accurate when stacked up against the 4.5 billion years the Earth has been around? I don't know... it seems much more logical to make sweeping generalizations and assumptions.

For anybody that needs a real world example of what the Al (Jazeera) Gore's of the world are pushing on you... it would be akin to finding 1 needle in a silo full of hay, and then stating "well with this find, we can therefore determine the silo is full of needles."

In grade school I was taught about the Ice Age and how much of Wisconsin was once under Ice. Given that we're not under ice right now, means that global temperatures must have risen at some point. Yes, we had the warmest year on record but there are two things to consider:

- recorded temperatures account for a minuscule part of the Earth's existence

- Can we prove that this warming was "man-made". After all, we did warm from the Ice Age period with nary a carbon emitting machine in sight

A granola advocacy group writes a scare-report about perceived global warming making insurance unaffordable, and that's a prediction of a natural disaster? Yawn.

Let me try my hand at that: With as many people driving as there are today, eventually there will be an accident on the freeway. Possibly even a rural road. That accident will cost money, and insurance rates will go up. We better start pulling all the cars off the road we can now before this accident occurs. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Facebook comments

Disclaimer: Please note that Facebook comments are posted through Facebook and cannot be approved, edited or declined by OnMilwaukee.com. The opinions expressed in Facebook comments do not necessarily reflect those of OnMilwaukee.com or its staff.

Under new ownership, the Milwaukee Bucks made significant strides by building a young pool of talent on the court this season. However, the organization also has quickly assembled an impressive pool of young talent off the court in the front office.

In his Feb. 23 column for the BizTimes, Steve Jagler observed that each time a project is proposed to propel the city forward, someone or something seems to pop up and attempts to stop it. Judging from the feedback Steve Jagler received in response to his piece, many readers feel the same way.

As the legal slog to develop a new streetcar system in Downtown Milwaukee continues to play out in court, in City Hall and at the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, proponents and opponents alike would do well to keep an eye on Cincinnati.

In recent years, the Milwaukee Bucks have not had much to celebrate when they've conducted their annual preview luncheon with the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. This year, however, there was a tangible buzz in the room at the event, which was held at the Harley-Davidson Museum.

In essence, preserving net neutrality would ensure that all consumers and businesses will have universal levels of access to a fast Internet, not just some preferred customers who would pay for "faster lanes" on the Internet.